Facebook User Group

Our private Facebook user group is one of the most active places where you can link with people from the UK, who have also been framed for something they say never happened. As of March 2018, we have over 1,600 members who receive our stories in their news feeds each day.

Discussions in private groups on Facebook remain that way: they’re private to the people in the group. Posts you make will therefore not be visible to your other Facebook friends who aren’t in the group.

However, the way Facebook groups work is that if you happen to search for accused.me.uk on Facebook, you can click on the link to the private group, and see all the members who are currently in it – including you. Having said that, someone who was tracking you would have to be quite determined to work out the group’s name, or that you were likely to seek support from there. We are not aware that this has ever happened to any of our members, but you should be mindful that it is a possibility.

You should also be aware that we are unable to carry out formal ‘vetting’ of people joining this group. That means that a person connected to your case could also join. At worst, that could include possibly the police or CPS who will be trawling for evidence against you. Be VERY careful not to post anything that could identify your accuser in this forum, or you may well find yourself in breach of other aspects of criminal law.

Members here cannot not offer you legal advice. We’re just a self-help network.

The moderators of the forum also ensure that the language used in your posts remains respectful and supportive of others going through a very distressing time. Members who cannot keep to these simple rules are removed.

To register, you need an active Facebook account. This does not have to be in your own name, although most members do use theirs. If you don’t want to use your own account, then you can easily create another one. You can run two accounts on the Facebook app on your phone, and receive messages via Facebook messenger similarly. Alternatively, you might want to set up another app, such as Friendly for Facebook and use it alongside Facebook’s own app.

Why we don’t carry out formal vetting

In the early days of the group, at the end of 2015, we did vet all newcomers. The way that happened was as follows: we would receive notification that someone wanted to join the group. We would then attempt to message the person to find out about their case. About half the people didn’t pick up the messages we sent back via Facebook. Of those who did reply, none were refused entry. However the phone calls to screen members could take up to an hour, and with just one person available to do this, it was not thought possible to commit this much time. Furthermore, we were turning away half the people who approached us for support, just because we couldn’t make initial contact with them without admitting them to the group. And finally, if the police or CPS were amongst the members we attempted to vet, it would have been easy for them to fabricate a story to gain entry.

What about setting up a vetted user forum

We do also have a properly administered forum, using vBulletin. Unfortunately, almost no one joined, but it’s still active. Also, it is possible for the key people you would want to exclude – the CPS and Police – from slipping through the net of any telephone vetting procedure. There are some alternative fora, which do undertake vetting.